Rumours, insider deals and rampant speculation drive markets down and companies to bankruptcy in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, which weaves fiction with the fact of the global financial crisis. Oliver Stone returns to the scene of his 1987 hit “Wall Street”, and Michael Douglas is back as the ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko in a film where big banks have replaced the greedy individual as the bad guys. Part morality tale, part revenge thriller and part analysis of where the financial markets and regulatory authorities went wrong, the movie has its world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Friday ahead of a theatrical release in September. Timely and topical at a time of volatility on the markets and concerns over the strength of the economic recovery, Stone said he, like many others, was confused about whether he thought capitalism was a good or a bad thing. “It seems that it's excessive and unregulated and I would love to see serious reform,” Stone told reporters after a press screening. “There are tremendous issues worldwide, I mean it goes to Greece and England and Spain and Portugal. The Oscar-winning filmmaker was, however, at pains to remind people that Wall Street 2 was first and foremost a piece of entertainment.
